The Maverick on Moloka’i - Tulsi Gabbard

The Maverick on
Moloka’i

Since the beginning of 2017, I
have been living on the fifth-largest island in Hawai’i.
East of O’ahu and west of Maui, my new home is known as
the Friendly Island and prides itself on
being more like the Hawai’i of 50 years ago than the
madness that the tourist meccas have become. It’s a
favorite place for people to retire to from those other
islands and from the mainland. Moloka’i is part of Maui
County (along with Larry Ellison’s island, Lana’i, and
Maui itself), and all the islands except the built-up part
of O’ahu are in Hawai’i’s Second Congressional
District, represented by Tulsi Gabbard (D).

Congress is on
spring break at the moment so the Representatives and
Senators are in their districts holding Town Hall meetings
with their constituents. Monday, April 17 was Moloka’i’s
turn for some face-to-face time with Tulsi, who is part
Samoan and part haole (pakeha), a practising Hindu, and a
Middle East combat veteran. A good source of information
about her is her ballotpedia listing here. In
Congress since 2012, she has been making waves with some of
her stances, such as resigning as co-chair of the Democratic
National Committee and endorsing Bernie Sanders in last
year’s election, meeting with Assad on a recent visit to
Syria, and being sceptical about the recent gas attack
there. She serves on both the House Foreign Affairs
Committee and Armed Services Committee.

The Town Hall
meeting started with a short chant to “clear the space”
(both physical and in people’s heads and hearts), a
prayer, introductory remarks from Gabbard, questions—oral
and written—from the attendees, and closing remarks from
the Congresswoman, in which she thanked everyone for coming
out and said, “It’s good to be home.” Then we all
joined hands in a big circle to sing Hawai’i Aloha. The audience was about
95 percent haole and about 60 percent elderly.

Here are
the issues that were addressed in the meeting, raised mainly
by the haole retirees, who are liberal Democrat-leaning.
Unsurprisingly, given the demographic (whose ability to pay
high prices for housing contributes to the problem), the
issue of affordable housing was not raised, despite it being
one of Gabbard’s top legislative
priorities.

::North
Korea::

Gabbard’s opening remarks were solely
about the issue that has the potential to literally hit
close to home—North Korea’s ICBM and nuclear
capabilities. “Why is this important to Hawai’i?” she
asked, and the audience responded with laughter. “I’m
glad that you’re laughing,” she went on, in
acknowledgement that this is a no-brainer question for a US
state that is within firing range. She noted how, on the
first trip she made back to Hawai’i with congressional
colleagues, they were surprised how far out in the Pacific
Ocean the island chain is. She mentioned how difficult it is
to get them to see this threat through her eyes, but she
assured the audience that Congress is “working on missile
defense” in Hawai’i. (As this Juice Media satirical PSA points out,
the use of the islands for military purposes is widespread,
and their importance as a strategic outpost for the military
was what got them illegally annexed in the first
place.)

Two of the oral questions also concerned the North
Korea face-off, with a former teacher mentioning how kids in
school today are terrified, and saying that “confusion and
fear should not be a byproduct of democracy,” in relation
to his wider question, “Is there an issue that will get
people together?” Another attendee recalled how her
grandfather would tell her about using blackout curtains
during World War II, and wondered, “How do you want your
community to respond to the North Korea threat?”
Awareness, and an updated state emergency plan were the two
suggestions from Gabbard. (The state is already considering
restocking its long-abandoned fallout shelters, according to
this news report from Honolulu’s KHNL
channel.)

::Education::

In February
2015, Gabbard introduced a bill to reauthorize the Native
Hawai’ian Education Act, but later supported including its provisions in
the Act that replaces No Child Left Behind, the Every
Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which was passed in December
that year. In response to a written question about the
process, Gabbard replied that she had been told it would be
impossible to get those amendments to ESSA passed because of
the pressure Republican members of Congress were under from
constituents who criticized those amendments for being
“racist”. Instead, she said, because of her previous
bi-partisan outreach, those who were being bombarded with
material from advocacy groups approached her directly to get
the Hawai’ian perspective, and were persuaded otherwise.

::Environment::

This is the issue that
first got Gabbard interested in policy and politics. Two of
the written questions were on this topic; the first asking
whether access to clean water was a local or federal matter,
and the second asking what Gabbard was doing to support
“the critical issues of the environment”. An earlier
speaker also referenced the Congresswoman’s efforts
related to invasive species and pest removal.

“Without
water, there is no life,” Gabbard said “Keeping and
preserving water and making sure it’s accessible” is one
of her priorities. With respect to the question about
critical issues, she explained that she and her staff are
currently creating their prioritization requests for the
Appropriations Committee as part of the current budget
process, and many of their requests are related to the
environment. She thinks that state- and county-level codes
are the better place to address many environmental issues
because they can be stronger than federal laws and
regulations.

::Impeachment::

The first
applause for a question came when an audience member said
that President Trump’s executive order about energy
independence “is reckless endangerment and is a case for
impeachment.” He went on to request that Gabbard draw up
Articles of Impeachment. A written question asked if
refusing to produce tax returns was cause for
impeachment.

Gabbard responded that she is not familiar
with the impeachment process, and that there are ethics laws
regarding transparency around financial matters, but those
laws aren’t being enforced. She added that she is
submitting something to the floor to have Trump release his
tax returns. (By way of background, Gabbard was one of the
last to co-sponsor the Presidential Tax Transparency Act (HR
305), and only did so after a motion was filed to discharge
the Committees on Ways and Means and Oversight and
Government Reform from the consideration of HR 305. A
petition to discharge requires 218 signatures for further
action—at this point in time, it has only 178.)

As
for impeachment itself, the question in Gabbard’s mind is
“the prospect of a President Pence.” She strongly
disagrees with many of his policies and recognizes that
Pence has the connections, experience, and clout to get
Republicans to pass them. “The norms are not the norms
anymore, I guess is what I’m trying to say.” She also
cautioned that calling for this action is taking time away
from Congressmembers’ consideration of important policy
issues.

::Budget/Government
shutdown::

Congress returns on April 25, and the
federal government is only funded through April 28, raising
the very real prospect of another government shutdown if the
appropriations process does not get completed by then.
Gabbard replied to the question about this by saying that is
more likely that a continuing resolution will be passed, but
that will mean that any projects with a start date after
April 28 and reliant on new funds in the actual
Appropriations Bill, will not be started. Because there is
“too much politicking around the issues—for example, the
wall,” she does not think there is any likelihood of the
Budget actually being passed by April 28. However, she said,
she was reminded by a Republican colleague that the
President only proposes a Budget, but it’s Congress that
writes and passes it, and she seemed to think this augured
well for Trump not getting everything his own
way.

::Other issues::

Air travel is a
necessity in Hawai’i and two questions reflected that. In
reply to one about the cost of airfares, Gabbard said she
wants to get a provision in the Budget—which raises TSA
fees—to exempt Hawai’i and Alaska, but “there is no
easy answer” on the issue of affordability. A question
about requiring airlines to use larger planes for
interisland flights so that they can better accommodate
elderly and disabled passengers elicited a similar
noncommittal response about what can be done.

The Stop
Arming Terrorists Act, problems with the existing Affordable
Care Act, and medical marijuana were also the subject of
questions from the attendees, along with concerns about the
actions of “an impulsive Commander in Chief” escalating
tensions in the Middle East and Asia, and the “legislative
genocide” that is being waged on seniors, the disabled,
and children with cuts to essential social services.
“Complacency is not an option on any of these issues,”
Gabbard said in response to that question, “but we do live
in a democracy and your voices need to be heard.”

A
video of the entire Town Hall is available on Akaku
Moloka’i’s Vimeo channel here.

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